It is well known to store and transport valuable articles, such as documents, minerals, currency, examination papers and the like, in a tamper evident, sealable plastics bag or primary container. Typically, the primary container is of an appropriate polyolefin that has desired characteristics and that bonds firmly with a strip of suitable adhesive. It is also known to protect a primary container, of any type, further by placing it in a secondary container that, depending on the nature of the articles being secured, has devices that can be activated to stain/damage the articles as well as indicate compromised security, such as visual/audible alarm signals and wireless tracking signals. The staining or damaging medium may be a powder, liquid, solid, gas or heat. Secondary containers are expensive and thus mostly used only to secure primary containers temporarily between collection and deposit points, such as a business and a suitable protected, secured or armoured courier vehicle.
The terms “stain” and “staining” as used herein refers to damaging, staining, marking, defacing and the like functions to render valuable articles, particularly currency and bearer documents, untradable. While tamper evident plastics primary containers provide acceptable protection against tempering, they are not suited for staining because the polyolefin is impregnable to known staining media. Secondary containers thus usually rely on a combination of heat to shrink or burn holes in the primary containers to allow access for staining. Although such systems have been used internationally for many years, it is known that their effectiveness is variable.
Significantly, the heat source is potentially dangerous at all times—fatalities and fires have been reported—and when used destroys the expensive secondary container.
Thus this invention seeks to provide a primary container for use within secondary containers and with staining systems that ensures acceptable staining of currency in a manner that resolves the inadequacies of the known systems mentioned above in a reasonably satisfactory manner.